Chapter XIX.—Jesus Christ, the Revealer of the Creator, Could Not Be the Same as Marcion’s God, Who Was Only Made Known by the Heretic Some CXV. Years After Christ, and That, Too, on a Principle Utterly Unsuited to the Teaching of Jesus Christ, I.e., the Opposition Between the Law and the Gospels.

Well, but our god, say the Marcionites, although he did not manifest himself from the beginning and by means of the creation, has yet revealed himself in Christ Jesus. A book will be devoted225    The third of these books against Marcion. to Christ, treating of His entire state; for it is desirable that these subject-matters should be distinguished one from another, in order that they may receive a fuller and more methodical treatment. Meanwhile it will be sufficient if, at this stage of the question, I show—and that but briefly—that Christ Jesus is the revealer226    Circumlatorem. of none other god but the Creator. In the fifteenth year of Tiberius,227    The author says this, not as his own, but as Marcion’s opinion; as is clear from his own words in his fourth book against Marcion, c. 7, (Pamelius). Christ Jesus vouchsafed to come down from heaven, as the spirit of saving health.228    Spiritus salutaris. I cared not to inquire, indeed, in what particular year of the elder Antoninus.  He who had so gracious a purpose did rather, like a pestilential sirocco,229    Aura canicularis. exhale this health or salvation, which Marcion teaches from his Pontus. Of this teacher there is no doubt that he is a heretic of the Antonine period, impious under the pious. Now, from Tiberius to Antoninus Pius, there are about 115 years and 6-1/2 months.  Just such an interval do they place between Christ and Marcion. Inasmuch, then, as Marcion, as we have shown, first introduced this god to notice in the time of Antoninus, the matter becomes at once clear, if you are a shrewd observer. The dates already decide the case, that he who came to light for the first time230    Primum processit. in the reign of Antoninus, did not appear in that of Tiberius; in other words, that the God of the Antonine period was not the God of the Tiberian; and consequently, that he whom Marcion has plainly preached for the first time, was not revealed by Christ (who announced His revelation as early as the reign of Tiberius). Now, to prove clearly what remains of the argument, I shall draw materials from my very adversaries. Marcion’s special and principal work is the separation of the law and the gospel; and his disciples will not deny that in this point they have their very best pretext for initiating and confirming themselves in his heresy. These are Marcion’s Antitheses, or contradictory propositions, which aim at committing the gospel to a variance with the law, in order that from the diversity of the two documents which contain them,231    Utriusque instrumenti. they may contend for a diversity of gods also.  Since, therefore, it is this very opposition between the law and the gospel which has suggested that the God of the gospel is different from the God of the law, it is clear that, before the said separation, that god could not have been known who became known232    Innotuit. from the argument of the separation itself.  He therefore could not have been revealed by Christ, who came before the separation, but must have been devised by Marcion, the author of the breach of peace between the gospel and the law.  Now this peace, which had remained unhurt and unshaken from Christ’s appearance to the time of Marcion’s audacious doctrine, was no doubt maintained by that way of thinking, which firmly held that the God of both law and gospel was none other than the Creator, against whom after so long a time a separation has been introduced by the heretic of Pontus.

CAPUT XIX.

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«Imo, inquiunt Marcionitae, Deus noster, etsi non ab initio, etsi non per conditionem, sed per semetipsum revelatus est in Christo Jesu.» Dabitur et in Christum liber, de omni statu ejus; distingui enim materias oportet, quo plenius et ordinatius retractentur. Interim satis erit ad praesentem gradum ita occurrere, ut ostendam Christum Jesum non alterius Dei circumlatorem, quam Creatoris; et quidem paucis. Anno quinto decimo Tiberii, Christus Jesus de coelo manare dignatus est, spiritus salutaris: Marcionis salutem , qui ita voluit , quoto quidem anno Antonini majoris de Ponto suo exhalaverit aura canicularis, non curavi investigare. De quo tamen constat, Antoninianus haereticus est, sub 0267B Pio impius. A Tiberio autem usque ad Antoninum, anni fere centum et quindecim et dimidium anni, cum dimidio mensis: tantumdem temporis ponunt inter Christum et Marcionem. Cum igitur sub Antonino primus Marcion hunc deum induxerit, sicut probavimus, statim, qui sapis, plana res est. Praejudicant tempora, quod sub Antonino primum processit, sub Tiberio non processisse; id est deum Antoniniani imperii, Tiberiani non fuisse; atque ita non a Christo revelatum, quem constat a Marcione primum praedicatum. Hoc nunc ut probem constare, quod superest, ab ipsis adversariis sumam. Separatio Legis et Evangelii, proprium et principale opus est Marcionis: nec poterunt negare discipuli ejus, quod in summo instrumento habent, quo denique 0267C initiantur, et indurantur in hanc haeresin. Nam hae sunt antitheses Marcionis, id est contrariae oppositiones; quae conantur discordiam Evangelii cum Lege committere, ut ex diversitate sententiarum utriusque instrumenti, diversitatem quoque argumententur deorum. Igitur, cum ea separatio Legis et Evangelii ipsa sit quae alium Deum Evangelii insinuaverit adversus Deum Legis, apparet 0268A ante eam separationem Deum in notitia non fuisse, qui ab argumento separationis innotuit; atque ita non a Christo revelatum, qui fuit ante separationem, sed a Marcione commentatum, qui instituit separationem adversus Evangelii Legisque pacem, quam retro illaesam et inconcussam, ab apparentia Christi usque ad audaciam Marcionis, illa utique ratio servavit, quae non alium Deum et Legis et Evangelii tuebatur, praeter Creatorem, adversus quem tanto post tempore separatio a Pontico immissa est.